Financial Regulation – Year in Review and Year to Come

Financial services firms and advisers were glued to developments in negotiations around the UK’s exit from the European Union this year. Firms had no choice but to push on with Brexit planning while simultaneously preparing for the application from January 2018 (subject to transitional rules) of several major EU pieces of financial regulation - MiFID II/MiFIR, PSD II and the Benchmarks Regulation – with an exceptional level of activity in each of these areas both at EU and domestic level.

In relation to anti-money laundering, June 2017 also saw the implementation of the Fourth Money Laundering Directive, and anti-money laundering is set to continue to be a regulatory priority across the globe going forward.

In the UK, the final provisions of the Senior Managers and Certification Regimes for banks and dual-regulated firms became applicable, as the regimes were embedded and refined. The FCA and PRA consulted on extending the regimes to insurers (building on the Senior Insurance Managers Regime) and to almost all solo-regulated firms (for whom they will replace the Approved Persons Regime). The new regimes are currently expected to apply to insurers from late 2018 and to solo-regulated firms from mid- to late-2019, and firms will need to prepare during 2018.

Amongst many other developments, the regulators’ and markets’ interest in fintech and regtech is worth highlighting, with significant regulator engagement in this area during 2017. Regulators are set to continue walking the tightrope between encouraging innovation and competition on the one hand and warning against the risks of new technologies and products on the other.

To help you keep a track of all key legal developments on the regulatory horizon we have prepared a year in review and year to come guide.

The guide is available on our Knowledge Portal - please click here to access it.

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